* I’m almost an absolutist when it comes to the 1st Amendment, so I have mixed feelings about the new law that prohibits protests within 300 feet of military funerals. But I have no mixed emotions at all about the idiotic morons at the Westboro Baptist “Church”…
Members of an anti-gay fundamentalist group known for their protests of military funerals will have to stay a bit farther away from such services under a measure Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Sunday as the Illinois State Fair observed its Veterans Day.
In contrast with the shouting members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church who often engage in outside funerals, Quinn quietly signed off on the “Let Them Rest In Peace Act,” which pushes protestors back another 100 feet to 300 feet - the equivalent of a football field’s length - at military funerals. Protests remain banned 30 minutes before and after funeral services.
A Westboro member labeled the new law as unconstitutional and said the church would continue its protests as it fights the laws in court.
“They can make (the ban distance) 100 miles, and it changes exactly nothing,” said Margie Phelps, a lawyer and the daughter of Westboro pastor Fred Phelps. “You all are delusional if you think you’re going to win this one.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the church, whose double-digit membership consists mostly of the children and other relations of patriarch Fred Phelps, they believe end times are nigh owing to our un-Christian ways. To ensure their own salvation, members go to soldiers’ funerals and other charged occasions like the first day of same-sex marriage in New York and scream and sing slurs while trampling the flag and rotating an array of aggressively obnoxious signs in the hopes of drawing media attention — which they inevitably do.
As church members see it, the point of yelling at the damned (pretty much everyone but them) isn’t to save us, but only to ensure we sinners have been warned so that our damnation won’t be on their hands. It’s nutty and not very consequential, though of course the groups the church targets sometimes have a tough time seeing it that way.
Talking to Margie Phelps, one of Fred’s daughters and the most vocal by far of the New York contingent, she boasted about how the media spreads her message despite her open contempt for it. Reading the Voice, she said, “I just skim through with my finger looking for our words. I don’t care how you encase them.”
Church members, she continued, had mastery of “the press, and Twitter, and social media. We’re skilled social marketers,” she said, crediting God with that development. Throughout the conversation, she lapsed into media jargon, like “close the loop,” alternating those thoughts with an almost random stream of vitriol.
* Speaking of free speech, WBBM TV truly ought to be ashamed of itself…
WBBM aired a story June 30 about a shooting in which two teenagers were wounded. It included video of the 4-year-old saying he wanted his own gun. The station edited out the rest of the boy’s statement that he wanted the gun because he wants to be a police officer.
Through communications director Shawnelle Richie, WBBM management admitted that employees made a mistake airing the video and compounded the error by editing the clip to take the boy’s comments out of context.
This was aired during the height of the alleged “wilding” wave, which resulted in a media frenzy. That CBS2 would actually lie about a story in order to perpetuate the craziness is beyond irresponsible. People ought to be fired for this, and those people should never be allowed to work in journalism ever again.
It’s no secret why members of Congress would shy away from holding open town hall meetings – it’s no fun getting yelled at by angry constituents or having an uncomfortable question become an unfortunate YouTube moment. By outsourcing the events to third parties that charge an entry fee to raise money, members of Congress can eliminate most of the riffraff while still – in some cases – allowing in reporters and TV cameras for a positive local news story.
